Blood Pressure

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48.     Under stress, we take shallow breath and this deprives the vital organs from the supply of oxygen resulting in our heart beating faster. Mental stress is an important risk for the causation of psychosomatic ailments, and hypertension is often its manifestation.

49.     When we are scared, nervous and under time pressure, our BP naturally goes up. The hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) released during periods of stress increase BP by narrowing blood vessels and increasing your heart rate.

50.     There is some evidence that people who have less control over their day to day life at work have higher BP than people who can influence their working lives more effectively. Manual workers tend to have higher BP than executives and managers. Thus job stress is not all in you head, it is in your circulatory system too.

51.     Although the effects of occasional stress are temporary, but if you are often stressed, then the increase in BP it causes can damage your arteries, heart, brain, kidneys and eyes – just as with persistent high BP. Moreover, long term stressful situations readjust the BP set point upwards permanently and may not eventually come down even after removal of the stress.

Cholesterol

52.     Cholesterol is a fatty substance which is primarily made in the body from the saturated fats in food. There are mainly two types of cholesterol; Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) i.e. bad cholesterol and High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) i.e. good cholesterol. High levels of cholesterol, especially bad LDL, can cause fatty deposits (called atheroma) in the lining of the arteries to develop more rapidly than normal levels of cholesterol. These fatty deposits cause the arteries to narrow and lead to high BP and coronary heart diseases and stroke.

Diabetes

53.     High blood glucose levels damage blood vessels which make the walls thicker and less elastic, so blood has a harder time passing through. According to a study by the Minnesota University, teenagers, whose bodies are resistant to insulin, face a greater risk of suffering from high BP and obesity in life. However, insulin resistance has an adverse effect on BP independent of obesity. Experts opine that more than 40% of all diabetics develop high BP by the age of 50 years followed by associated complications like heart disease, stroke and renal failure.